Exclusive: Defiant MP Shahid Malik "I have done nothing wrong"

May 20 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE MP at the centre of the expenses storm today spoke directly to Examiner readers.

In an exclusive interview with The Examiner, Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik insists he has not resigned from his job as Justice Minister and says the public has a right to be angry at the obvious abuse of the system that has been highlighted.

He does say he doesn’t understand why he was individually picked on when he has spent the same as the majority of MPs, including ‘penny for penny’ the same as local MPs Barry Sheerman and Kali Mountford claimed for their second homes in London.

He argues that the type of media attention he endured typically focused on extreme cases such as paying tens of thousands of pounds for mortgages that didn’t exist or for cleaning out moats, swimming pools, maintaining country estates and even a helipad for a helicopter.

In terms of his ministerial role he says he has simply ‘stepped aside’ from the role and feels he has been badly mis-cast in the expenses row as a villain by the national press.

He says that stepping away from his job for the time being was in relation to an alleged break of the Ministerial Code – allegations that he underpaid the market value for his constituency office in Dewsbury and his house in the town. He says he welcomes the inquiry as an opportunity to clear his name.

He says that the inquiry has nothing whatsoever to do with his expenses claims.

He also gave an intriguing insight into the expense system that he branded as ‘madness’ in the past.

He said: “I was a new MP and needed to buy a TV for my second home in London. I asked the officials at the Fees Office how much I could spend and they told me there was no limit, which I said at the time was mad. Despite my questioning them on several occasions they maintained the was no limit.

“I bought a 40ins Sony LCD for £2,100 – the same TV now costs about £500 – and put the claim in, but they then said I had spent above the limit. There was a limit, but officials from the Members Inquiry And Advice Team had not told me what it was.

“Later I bought a wardrobe for £1,500 but only claimed £500 as I thought the full amount would have been excessive.’’

He said that despite his request for limits on expenditure, this was only made public to MPs when a Freedom of Information Act request to release them was put through the courts in 2008.

“Up to then the limits had been kept a secret,’’ he said. “It was a culture that did not make sense.’’